Assasin from the past
by 2Wolves
Summary: Ino Yamanaka was labeled dead at the age of 10 by most of the people in Konoha. but Shikamaru and Choji to this day, refuse to accept her death. Suddenly, a girl comes to Konoha, and at the same time, the Hokage receives a warning that an assassin is coming to kill one of her ninja crappy summery, sorry. A.U, romance with Shikamaru and Ino, friendship with Shikamaru, Ino and Choji.
1. Prologue

**HI everyone! OK, this is my first Shikamaru and Ino fanfic, so please be nice!**

**Also warning, I am VERY VERY VERY behind in the Naruto manga, and I don't know what's happening right now, so again, bear with me. This story is alternate universe, sort of. It all still takes place in Konoha, with ninja's and stuff, and all the characters are still there, Ino's story just changed. Hope you enjoy! Don't own Naruto or the characters.**

"Hey Shikamaru, what's with the necklaces?" Naruto blurted out.

Shikamaru looked up in surprise. "Huh? Did you say something?"

Shikamaru, Naruto, Choji, Kiba, Lee and Neji were all eating at the ramen Ichiraku, (Naruto's suggestion of course.) Neji and Shikamaru were talking about some smart thing, that Lee was too busy to care about. Apparently Naruto, who was upset for being left out of the conversation, (though Kiba argued it was his fault for not being able to keep up.) and tried to make a conversation of the first thing on his mind.

"Those two necklaces. I've been meaning to ask you about them, you always were them. I was just wondering why?"

Kiba frowned. "That's true, and it's two of the same necklace. That's kinda dumb."

Suddenly, Shikamaru's face darkened slightly, as he turned to face the window. Choji, who had been stuffing his face a moment ago, stopped abruptly, and was eyeing Shikamaru wearily. "It's no big deal. Just a habit. It'd be a drag to only wear one."

Naruto frowned. Of course that wouldn't be enough for him. "That's a stupid answer."

Shikamaru just shrugged. "Well that's the answer you're getting." Naruto frowned for a moment. Suddenly, he reached forward, grabbing one of the necklaces, and yanking it off of Shikamaru's head. "Hey!" Shikamaru cried out in protest, reaching forward to grab it back. But Naruto held it just out of reach, jumping out of his seat, and dangling the necklace between his fingers.

"Ohhh, looks like cloud boy got a little secret. Come on fess up!"

Shikamaru glared at him. "Come on Naruto stop being a drag, just give it back."

Naruto shook his head. "Nope not until you answer the question."

"What's the big deal Shikamaru?" Kiba interrupted. "Just answer his question."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, his eyes glued on the necklace. He stammered slightly trying to figure out what to say. "I-it's, um," finally he gave up. "Ugh, Naruto just forget it, it's no big deal, just give it back!"

"If you want it back so badly come and get it yourself you lazy slob!" Lee munched silently on his ramen noodles, as he listened to his two friends bicker in the corner.

"What's so important about it?" Naruto said, tossing the necklace object between his hands.

Shikamaru glared at him from his seat. He hadn't gotten up from his seat, but Lee could tell he was angry. "It doesn't matter just give it back, you're being a nuisance."

Naruto rolled his eyes at him, studying the necklace. "I just don't get why you would want something like this! I mean you wear it all the time, but you've never mentioned it. And you have 2 anyways, so what does it matter if I take one? Seriously Shikamaru, its stupid for a smart guy like you to be wearing something so girly and stu..." suddenly, Shikamaru jumped from his chair, his fist colliding with Naruto's face. Naruto dropped the unknown object, as he fell back to the ground.

"Dude what the heck!" Naruto blurted out, holding a hand to his cheek, which was starting to swell. "I was just joking around, chill."

Lee's mouth dropped in surprise. Sure Shikamaru was annoyed, but to go so far as to hit Naruto? That was so unlike Shikamaru. Mostly because of the unnecessary effort it would take. Kiba smirked over his bowl. "Serves you right for being annoying!" Kiba called jokingly, Naruto glaring at him.

"Well, if he'd just answer my question, I'll stop!" Naruto protested.

"Don't." All eyes turned to Shikamaru, and suddenly, the joking mood was over. "Don't ever call it stupid. Never again, you got me?" Shikamaru's voice was low, sending a chill down everyone's spin. Not able to think of a comeback, Naruto simply nodded. Without another word, Shikamaru walked out of the restaurant, the group was left in silence. As he was leaving, Lee caught a better look at the necklace. It was a simple design, with three large beads on it. Each had a different character painted on, Nara; Yamanaka; and Akimichi. Akimichi, and Nara were easy to figure out, but who was Yamanaka?

"What the heck was that all about!?" Kiba asked. "He just went all monster face weirdo on us!"

Neji raised an eyebrow at him. "Monster face weirdo?"

"Hey, not all of us are genius prodigies."

Choji sighed, speaking up for the first time. "You got to be nice to him; he's really sensitive about that thing."

"Why is he so protective of it Choji-kun? It's just a necklace." Lee called out.

"I myself find it rather strange." Neji added. "Could it possibly be a family thing? I know that the Akimichi and Nara clans are rather close. You yourself have a necklace the exact same. But what I find odd is that you only have one, where as Nara-kun has two."

Choji was silent for a moment. "It's...a long story."

Naruto frowned, walking towards them, and returning to his seat. "Well hurry up and tell us, we don't have all day!"

Choji was silent, for a moment, watching as his friends gazes became fixed on him. He reached forward, and slowly started eating his ramen, as he tried to figure out the words to say. "The Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clans all have a tradition. When one child from each clan turns ten years old within the same year, the three of them are immediately bonded as teammates. The three become so close, that they eventually become almost closer then family, each would easily give their lives for the other two." Choji's eyes slowly drifted to the floor. "Or at least that's how my dad describes it; he was in a "triangle bond." as we call it, with Shikamaru's dad, and Yamanaka Inouchi. The three are each given a necklace, representing the bonds to each other, and the bonds of the clans."

"Well that explains the necklaces." Neji said nodding.

"But wait a second." Naruto said, struggling to keep up. "You said this happens when there is one from each clan right? But it's only you and Shika; there is no one from the Yamanaka clan."

Choji was silent for a moment. "Me and Shikamaru, used to be part of a triangle bond. But not anymore."

Kiba frowned. "Wait a second, there was another one? There were three of you guys?"

Choji nodded. "Triangle bonds don't work the same with only two, I and Shika are still close, but we can't really call it a triangle bond anymore."

"Wait wait wait." Naruto said, holding up his hands. "We're 17, almost 18, and I never knew about this?"

Choji shrugged. "We don't usually like to talk about it."

"Well what happened to this other guy?" Kiba asked.

"It wasn't a guy." Choji said his eyes on his noodles. "It was a girl. Ino Yamanaka."

Kiba raised his eyebrows in surprise. "A girl? No wonder I never met her, the two of you probably chased her away."

"Ino Yamanaka." Neji said thoughtfully. "I do not believe I recognize the name."

"No you probably wouldn't. You see..." he stopped for a moment to look all of them in the eye. "Ino, she went...missing when she we were 10 years old."

The air seemed to get a lot heavier after that. After a long moment of silence, Naruto spoke out. "What happened?"

Choji was silent for a moment before continuing. "It was only a month after the three of us were, bonded I guess. At first, it seemed like a normal day, we were out in the meadow, Shikamaru was lying in the grass watching the clouds, I was eating my chips, and Ino was picking flowers."

"Typical. Of course the girl is picking flowers." Kiba muttered,

Lee hit him in the head. "Of course! The love for flowers matches the inner beauty of a woman that is just waiting to be released."

Neji ignored Lee's mindless rant. "Please Choji, continue."

Choji nervously scooped another bit of noodles into his mouth before continuing. "That day, Shikamaru asked Ino to come over and watch the clouds with her, rather than picking flowers. At first Ino said no, saying that she much preferred picking her flowers. Shikamaru said she was being stupid, and said that picking flowers was lame and no one who wanted to become a ninja should pick flowers. Ino got really mad at that, and she and Shikamaru got in a big fight. it was just kid stuff, I'm pretty sure neither of them really knew what the fight had started as to begin with, but suddenly, Ino got really upset, and ran away. At first, me and Shikamaru said nothing. But then later on, we decided to go look for her. We went to her house but she wasn't there. We searched all over town, looking everywhere we could think of, but there was no sign of her. The Yamanaka clan sent out people to search for her, but after six months, they still couldn't find anything, eventually, they gave up, assuming she had fallen off a cliff somewhere. Her parents at first didn't accept it, but after a while, they also had to agree."

Choji swallowed a bit, before continuing. "But Shikamaru, he refused to believe it. Both of us, we couldn't accept the fact that Ino had died just like that." He paused for a moment. "Each triangle bonds group, are given a hawk. The hawk is specially trained only to transport messages between the three of them. The hawk is able to find any member of the bond no matter where they are. If one of the members die," he paused to show his necklace. "The hawk is trained to take the necklace from the body, and return it to the other members of the bond."

The group was silent for a moment, letting Choji's story settle in. "so, the second necklace..." Naruto started.

Choji nodded. "Every day for a year, me and Shikamaru would send out the Hawk, giving it messages to give to Ino, telling her we were sorry and wanted her to come back. It would always return the day after, the message still in it's talons. Exactly one year after Ino went missing; the Hawk came back, with her necklace." Choji starred down at the counter, the memory of the event haunting him.

"I can't...I can't believe I never knew." Naruto said.

"We've known both of you for so long, I never even imagined." Kiba agreed.

Choji didn't acknowledge their comments. "I still remember Shikamaru's face, when the Hawk returned with the necklace. I was the first to see it, because I was better with animals than Shikamaru. I had already started crying, when I turned and held the necklace out to Shikamaru. He just starred at it, refusing to move. I could see the denial in his eyes, as if he were screaming at himself. **_It's not true! It's a trick! She's still out there, don't believe it! You can't give up on her, she still needs you!_**_"_ unconsciously, Choji reached up, and whipped his eyes.

"So Shikamaru finally accepted it?" Lee asked hesitantly.

Choji shook his head. "He didn't I didn't either." He sniffled a bit. "When you lose someone, you can't just accept it, even to this day; I don't think Shikamaru believes that Ino is dead." Choji turned, and starred after where Shikamaru had walked out. "The anniversary is in a few months. Each year, both of us, we go visit her grave, and send off the Hawk again, in hopes that it will find her and bring her back."

"You actually believe she's still alive, after all this time?" Kiba asked, gently.

Choji turned to him, his eyes were red. "I don't know what I'll do if she isn't. She has to be alive." Choji turned again to look at the clouds. "She has to be."

The young blond walked down the echoing halls, her shoes clacking on the stone ground. She came to the door at the end of the hall, and knocked on it respectfully.

"enter." A gruff voice replied. The girl soundlessly opened the door, and closed it behind her. A large man was sitting behind a desk, a large assortment of different weapons were hanging on the wall behind him. His eyes glanced up, "how'd it go?"

The girl walked forward, and sat down in a chair facing him. She flipped her long, silk blond hair behind her shoulder. "Pretty boring to be honest. I got to him with no trouble at all. Although, I did get the chance to dance a bit, and there was one guy there, that was a really good kisser."

"And I can assume that he has been dealt with?" the man interrupted.

The girl rolled her eyes. "You're such a grouch. Yeah the guys dead, ok? Why do you never care to hear about the fun stuff?"

Ignoring her comment, the man reached forward, handing her a portfolio. "You got another assignment."

The girl groaned. "Already? I won't even have time to polish my nails!" even so, she reached forward, taking the portfolio. She took a moment to read the first page. "Konoha? You serious, that's so far!"

"Should be easy enough to get to." The man said, ignoring her complaints. "They want him dead within 3 months."

The girl frowned, "that's a short amount of time for such a distance." She looked at the picture of the man. "What'd this guy do anyway, that they want him dead?"

The man looked up at her. "It's not your place to ask questions. You just do the work we give you."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine fine whatever. Can you at least tell me the name of the guy I'm after?"

The man turned back to his work. "His name is..."

**Ok there we go! It wasn't very good, sorry; hopefully the next chapter is better! Please review and no flames please! **


	2. Chapter 1

**Hi Guys! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, here's my late Christmas present! Hope you all enjoy it! Reviews please!**

Shikamaru frowned, as he walked through the empty halls. Why did they always have to call him so early? Seriously, what could be so serious that they couldn't have waited just another ten minutes for him to sleep? Man; didn't people realize it was bad for you not to get enough sleep? He finally came to the end of the hallway, knocking on the door at the end. "enter." A voice called out to him. Shikamaru opened the door, walking in lazily. Tsunade was sitting at her desk, her head held in her folded hands. "Thanks for coming on such short notice Nara-kun." She spoke.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, placing his hand in his pockets. "Yeah yeah, just get on with it, I need to catch up on my sleep from all the time you guys have me working."

Tsunade's fists tightened. "Fool, do you know who you're speaking to?" Shikamaru just rolled her eyes at the threat. Tsunade had been working with Shikamaru for so long; banter between the two was common. He knew the elder lady trusted him, and she couldn't really speak against his laziness, since she wasn't too good herself. She sighed in defeat. "Very well I will get to the point." The temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees. "This morning, I received a message from one of my secret sources that an assassin has been sent to kill one of the ninja here in Konoha."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"The information came from a trustworthy source." Tsunade explained.

"Any idea who the target is?"

The lady shook her head. "None. Just that it was one of higher up ninja. Someone above the level of Chunnin was the closest guess."

"That's not much to go on." Shikamaru commented.

Tsunade shook her head. "No it's not."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Shikamaru asked.

"You're a smart man. I'm asking you to look around, report anyone new in the village who seems like they don't quite fit."

"How am I going to know that?"

"Just follow your instinct. It's usually right." Tsunade nodded. "You're the only one who can know about this Shikamaru, I don't want to cause an uproar."

"Yeah yeah, things could get ugly then." Shikamaru sighed. "Man this is such a drag, and here I thought it might actually be peaceful here for a while." He turned to leave. "I'll report to you as soon as I seen anything. Right now, I'm heading home to take a nap."

"Shikamaru!" Shikamaru turned back to her. "Be careful. For all we know, you could be the target."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment before smirking. "You got to stop worrying about me, I can take care I myself. Keep thinking like that, and your age will start to show, more than it already has I mean." And Shikamaru left the room, closing the door behind him just in time to hear the glass shatter at the vase Tsunade had thrown at him.

**_Sakura POV_**

"Excuse me Sakura-San." Sakura looked up from the clipboard she was holding to answer the voice. She was currently in the Konoha Hospital, having just come out from taking care of a child with a broken leg. Most people respected her as a full doctor, because of her apprentice to the Hokage. A nurse hurried over to her.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, placing down her clipboard, as the nurse approached her. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, well milady, it's not necessarily bad news. It's just; a ninja from the sand village came."

Sakura frowned for a moment. "The sand? Do you mean Temari-san?"

The lady shook her head. "No it's not Temari-san. She says that she was sent as part of her training."

"So what's the problem?" Sakura asked.

"Well no, it's just that, we did receive information of a medic ninja coming from the sand, but the document stated that he wouldn't be coming for another month or so."

Sakura frowned. "Wait, he?"

The nurse nodded again. "Yes, the message said, a boy would be coming."

Sakura frowned, taking the clipboard, reading over the message that had been sent. It was unlike the Sand ninja to make such a mistake. "Where is she?"

"I sent her to your office milady." The nurse replied. Sakura thanked her quickly, before walking towards her office. She found the girl sitting in a seat facing her desk. She was wearing a white lab coat then went down to her knees. She had long blond hair that was held back in a high ponytail, other than a single strand that fell beside her face. She was facing the window; her right leg crossed over her left, her elbow against her knee, her face in her hand. Sakura knocked softly on the door to get her attention. Immediately, the girl turned towards her, her posture straightening, her right hand going for something on her belt. But as soon as her eyes met Sakura's, her posture relaxed, and she placed bother hands on the armrests.

"O hello. I'm sorry you startled me there for a moment." The girl had a cheery voice, as she smiled politely at Sakura.

Sakura returned the smile, before walking towards her desk. "I apologize for startling you. I'm Sakura Haruno as you might have guessed."

The girl nodded eagerly. "I was told that you would be overseeing my time here, since you as well are a medic ninja in training."

"Yes about that." Sakura said, turning to her clipboard. "The message you sent us with information of your visit was a bit inaccurate."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

Sakura frowned. "Well, for starters, it says here that you wouldn't be arriving for another month or so."

"Oh that!" the girl relaxed back into her chair, waving her hand as if to shove the matter aside. "There was a case I was helping with that was supposed to take some time, but a friend of mine decided to fill in for me, so my slate was cleared to come here early." The girl frowned nervously, tilting her head. "I do hope that's alright."

"Oh yes of course!" Sakura said reassuringly. "But, the parchment also stated that, the Sanagakure would be sending us a male ninja?"

The girl frowned. "It did?" the girl placed her head in her hand for a moment, pondering. Suddenly she snapped her fingers. "Oh man, it must have been Yamato; I knew I shouldn't have asked him to fill out the form for me!" She turned to Sakura to explain. "He's a friend of mine in the communications department. He's always had this bad habit of playing little jokes like this on people. Like this one time, there was a friend of mine, who had a crush on this guys older brother, and he..."

Sakura pondered her response, as the girl went on and on with her story. Her responses didn't seem quite right to Sakura. The Sanagakure had always struck her as an extremely orderly society, that wouldn't let official documents be so easily tampered with. And the thing about a friend stepping in for her, sure it wasn't unheard of, but it was a rare occurrence. But the girl was talking so calmly, her attitude was so carefree and reassuring, Sakura pushed aside her doubts, telling herself she was thinking too far into this. "Well, other than that, it looks like everything is in order." Sakura said, cutting off the girl's story. "It's getting a little late today. Would you be ok to start tomorrow?"

The girl nodded cheerily. "I'm really excited to work here! It's going to be so much fun! And this place is so nice, I love all the flowers! There aren't very many flowers back at home!"

Sakura nodded politely. "_Well she isn't shy is she?"_ Sakura interrupted her again. "Do you know where you're staying tonight?"

The girl frowned. "Um, no I don't. I came straight here after I arrived; I was going to go find a hotel after meeting you."

Sakura shook her head. "Actually, we have already prepared a place for you to stay. Since you've never been here, we have you staying with one of our ninja's. He should be here any moment."

"Hey Sakura you called for me?" a voice came ringing from outside the hall.

**_Ino POV_**

Ino's head turned toward the door, and she froze.

"_no." _She thought meekly, her voice mouthing the word over and over. "_No no no, anyone but him, please not him."_ A boy walked into the office. He had a lazy expression on his face; he had slick black hair tied up on top of his head. He wore a simple black t-shirt and some jeans, his hand resting in his pockets. He was well muscled, nothing spectacular, but still enough to be noticed. Ino recognized him immediately, an image flashing behind her eyes, of a young boy, with a cute face, a far too rare smile gracing his features. Ino immediately pushed the image aside.

"Shikamaru!" the young nurse, Sakura smiled lightly at the boy. "Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"ugh." The boy groaned. "This is such a drag. I was having such a great nap, and then I get a phone call to come in? Typical, I never get any sleep."

Sakura glared at him. "Shikamaru, be polite! This is the girl that will be staying at your house for a while."

Shikamaru turned towards Ino, "so this is the girl that is invading my privacy for..." his mouth froze mid sentence. He met her eyes and his body completely froze. Ino could see his muscles tense. "_Oh no." _Ino thought, biting her lip in fear. "_He recognizes me. This is bad, this is really bad." _Ino's mind was panicking; she could feel his eyes fall over her, burning into her very soul.

Silently, almost unheard Ino heard him mutter. "Yamanaka In..."

In a panic, Ino reacted fast. "NANAMI!" she squeaked, shooting her hand towards him. She was breathing heavily, but she swallowed it down. "My name is Nanami. It's nice to meet you."

The room was silent for a moment, as if the very world were holding its breath. Ino refused to look at him, attempting to hide behind her single strand of hair, her eyes fixed on her outreached hand. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Shikamaru grasped her hand. "Shikamaru." He went silent again, and Ino met his eyes.

They were chocolate brown, and Ino felt she could melt in him. "_Get it together girl!" _Ino mentally scolded herself. Though she couldn't deny, Shikamaru had turned out to be quiet the handsome guy.

"I'm sorry for acting weird; it's just, you remind me of someone."

Ino bit her lip nervously. Forcing her emotions down, she forced a smirk onto her face. She opened her mouth, and allowed herself to talk thoughtlessly. "Aww, thought I was that princess from your dreams last night? Sorry sweetie, but you'll just have to keep looking. Shouldn't be too hard with a face like yours, although you might want to do something with your hair first."

Shikamaru frowned for a second, taken aback by her abrasive attitude. "Uh, thanks? I think." He turned to Sakura. "Why is she staying with me anyway? Shouldn't she be staying with, well a girl?"

Sakura looked at him. "Well, we figured since you had so much experience with girls from the sand village."

Shikamaru immediately caught the teasing behind the words. "Hey!"

Ino caught the tiny blush in his cheeks. A pang of pain and regret washed over her. "_Looks like my little Shika grew up just fine without me." _Ino immediately caught herself. _"Shut up Ino! He's not your little Shika anymore! He hasn't been for a long time. Just focus on the mission at hand and ignore your emotions, just like you were taught to." _Ino took a deep breath to clear her thoughts. Smiling cheerfully, she grabbed her knapsack, and wrapped it over her shoulder. "Well, I'm pretty tired; it was a really long trip! If you could be a gentleman and show me the way I'd appreciate it."

Ino could see Shikamaru send Sakura a (what -have-you-gotten-me-into?) look, before opening the door for Ino.

**_Sakura POV_**

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at these turn of events. A girl like Nanami, with her outgoing attitude, staying with someone like Shikamaru? This could only mean trouble. She giggled to herself as the two of them walked out the door. But she couldn't deny that the way the two of them looked at each other was weird, especially Shikamaru. Shikamaru, unlike most of the boys from Konoha, had never shown much interest in girls, which is why so many people picked on him for his affiliation with Temari, despite the fact that there was nothing going on between them. But the way he looked at Nanami, Sakura couldn't describe it any better, then a blind man seeing colour for the first time. Sakura had never seen Shikamaru like that before. Sakura frowned, thinking to herself. "This is going to get interesting." She mumbled to herself.

**_Ino POV_**

"Hey, hey it's me, do you read me?" there was a pause before a reply was heard.

"Yes, we read you. What's your status?"

"I've successfully made it inside. Man we sure got lucky on this one, it's a good thing you guys intercepted that message to the leaf, or it would have been a lot harder to get in here."

"Have you made contact yet?"

"Yeah, briefly. He's not much of a talker though is he?"

"How long till it's complete?"

"I don't know. This place is crawling with ninja, I could name practically everyone here from different war stories I've heard!"

"Report as soon as you have the chance."

"Yeah yeah sure thing."

Silence.

"I hope that your personal connections to this place will not be an issue?"

There was silence again.

"No...no they will not. I will get this done."

"I hope so, for you do know the consequences if you fail."

"...yeah. I know."

**Hey! Hope you liked it! It might take me a little while to post again, because there's another story I have to update. Hope you all enjoyed, please review! **


End file.
